Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Jays will look at just about anyone at this point

Fresh of the trade for Manny MateoMerkinBall Valdez, the Jays are apparently prepared to watch Eric Gagné sweat and strain away a year's worth of Chez Ashton poutines at a workout somewhere in the Florida sun. (Of course, this is one of those internets reports, and you can't trust a goddamned thing that's said on the internets these days.)

The Jays' willingness to look at Gangné leads us to this question: We know that you can never have too many arms, but at what point does following that truism creep over the line to goofy self-parody?

Okay, we're mostly kidding about that last bit. It's probably a good thing that the Jays, under Alex "Doogie" Anthopoulos are being all OCD about making sure that they get someone at every workout, because who really knows what you might find. And it doesn't cost them anything to show up and have a look see.

Of course, the depressing part about this for us is that the Jays could bring in 100 bullpen arms, and we know that we're still going to have to sit through 60 Shawn Camp outings this year. (And yes, we know he put up okay numbers, but we have an irrational hate-on for Shawn Camp. Can't help it. It drives us batshit crazy when we see that guy running out of the pen.)

Shawn Camp is OK by me, used appropriately of course. Which pretty much disqualifies him under terms of use by The Manager.

I feel you though, Tao. We all have our guys like that. For me, back in the day, it was Frank Wills. Hated that dude and every inning he pitched from the pen.

re: Gagne...I dunno. I guess so. I suppose I'd rather see a report stating "the Jays plan on having a scout in attendance" than wondering why they never have a look at these barely-warm bodies. Unless the report concerns John Halama.

Gagné doesn't fit except as a guy to flip at the deadline. The question is whether there is any reason to think he can make himself tradeable between now and july. If he they think he can then the next question is whether this will impede anyone's development. Since there is no "closer of the future" on the team, the answer seems to be no. The last question is whether he'll take innings away from someone else who might turn himself into a tradeable asset, like Jason Frasor. I don't see Frasor as any contending team's "late inning" specialist, so this seems like a low risk low reward situation.

my main worry is how Cito would handle Gagné. He is a washed up veteran after all, so i could easily see him being trotted out there night after night to give up HRs after Carlson loads the bases.

I loved Frank Wills. Bill James said that he had the single best pitch in the league at times. "A splitter which was missing the L."I like having a dude who can get a ground ball when needed; much like The Ack in his good years.

"Yeah, like, y'know? The Jays never signed no Canadians when J.P.was there. They shoulda signed Eric Gagné when he was getting all them saves for the Angels. If they did, they mighta won the World Series by now."

Shawn Camp is cursed with the "serviceable" tag. He's boring and devoid of anything worthwhile. He's instantly forgettable. He's a shittier version of Jason Frasor, for God's save. He's a one year stop gap that's stuck around for 3 years.

i like camp when we're getting white-washed. when i see him trotting out, i know we're getting 3 innings and saving the good arms for a tense situation. when i see him coming out in a lead, tie, or 1-run situation, i scream at the tv.

I got very sick of watching Brandon League. Stupid Weezer glasses, dumb arm-sleeve tats. Throws 98 and never wants to throw a strike. I bet he threw 90% of his pitches at the middle of the strike zone and just guessed about where they'd end up.